Frank and Marie

In relation to my post on Everybody Loves Raymond, and my post on noise, I thought back to one of the episodes with Marie and Frank, Ray's parents on Everybody Loves Raymond, and how they sit at the dinner table eating and never even talk to each other.

I mentioned how my generation, the "net generation" enjoys the mere thought/sound of noise, and not necessarily what they are hearing. Hell, I've learned to tune things out pretty easily, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the noise. It seems as though the Baby Boomer generation, on the other hand preferred silence as opposed to just noise, at least that's what the episode on Everybody Loves Raymond suggests.

And, from personal experience, with a father in that same generation, he most certainly prefers silence over noise. I can't count how many times he has pissed me off by just shutting off the radio because the volume is slightly higher than he'd like. Why doesn't he understand how to just twist the knob to the left and turn it down?

Frank and Marie are having dinner in silence, they don't speak to each other or anything, it's as if they can read each others minds. Deb, Ray's wife, gets upset with Ray for never speaking to her during dinner and says she doesn't want to grow up like Ray's parents and she wants Ray to take an interest in her and talk to her. However, once Deb sees Marie and Frank at dinner, she seems to find a peacefulness in the silence.

Obviously there is a peacefulness in silence, but is silence another way to communicate as they would suggest?